Clash of the Titans: Patrick Henry and James Madison and the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788
by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. Anytime anybody asks me what books I would recommend to someone who wants to learn more about the Constitution and to understand exactly what the Founding ...
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Federal Farmer Makes his Case for the Tenth Amendment
By: TJ Martinell Given the power various officers in the federal government would wield, the Federal Farmer believed that there needed to be a better mechanism to appoint them and remove ...
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Federal Farmer: Will the Judiciary Preserve or Destroy Liberty?
By: TJ Martinell While many anti-federalists, including Patrick Henry, regarded the judicial branch of the federal government under the proposed U.S. Constitution with deep suspicion, the Federal Farmer took a more ...
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Federal Farmer: Politicians and Bureaucrats must be “Recallable”
By: TJ Martinell Given the power various officers in the federal government would wield, the Federal Farmer believed that there needed to be a better mechanism to appoint them and remove ...
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The ideas that formed the Constitution: Cicero Continued
By: Rob Natelson The previous installment in this series outlined the life and career of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. It described how John Adams relied on Cicero’s work in the preface ...
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Federal Farmer: Representation Isn’t Sufficient
By: TJ Martinell When it was ratified, the U.S. Constitution set a cap on the number of representatives at no more than one per 30,000 persons. In his seventh letter dated Dec. ...
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Federal Farmer: Constitution creates “a strong tendency to aristocracy”
By: TJ Martinell In his third letter dated Oct. 10, 1787, the anti-federalist writer Federal Farmer wrote skeptically of the proposed new federal government for fear it would bring about a “tendency toward ...
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Patrick Henry’s Warning on “Implied Authority”
By: TJ Martinell Patrick Henry’s impassioned remarks during the final days of the Virginia Ratifying Convention were the culmination of week-long arguments between skeptics of the proposed Constitution and its supporters, such as ...
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The Federal Farmer: The Constitution Would Lead to a Complete Consolidation
By: TJ Martinell During the debates over ratification of the Constitution, one of the most influential and important series of papers were written by the Federal Farmer, an anti-federalist who forcefully ...
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James Wilson Delivers “State House Yard Speech” in Favor of the Constitution
By: Dave Benner On October 6, 1787, eminent Pennsylvanian James Wilson delivered his famous “State House Yard Speech” in support of the Constitution in Philadelphia. On the dawn of the first ...
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